Title: Places I'd Better Not Name
Fandom: Slings & Arrows
Rating: PG-13
Length: 300
Content notes: no warnings apply
Author note: title from "Rosy and Grey"
Summary: "Oh look, someone made an album just for you."



Darren Nichols prides himself - not without reason - on being more than usually proof against most forms of nostalgia. Still, there are some memories that can provoke something unexpectedly close to it. The summer he and Geoffrey spent travelling in Europe is one of them. Apparently.

There's nothing in the airmail envelope from New Burbage but a yellowing page torn from the Star's music section, celebrating Lowest of the Low's classic album Shakespeare My Butt. "Oh look," Geoffrey's scrawled across it, "someone made an album just for you."

God only knows why he bothered to send it; who knows why Geoffrey does anything? It's more surprising he knew the address.

The gibe about Darren's alleged disrespect for Geoffrey's favourite dramatist is so obvious as to add insult to injury. Though it's true, Darren did have a fondness for Shakespeare My Butt. For one song in particular...

"What is making you look like the cat who steals the cream?" Ludmila asks suspiciously.

"Nothing that need trouble you, darling," Darren says, rummaging through the jumble of postcards in his desk. Should have known that kitschy view of Montmartre would come in handy one of these days. He scribbles his reply; let Geoffrey make of it what he will.

R and G last verse? Geoffrey, you old sentimentalist: I'm touched. D x

There's just time to catch the post before he has to meet Franz and go over the designs for Woyzeck. He walks out of the theatre whistling a tune he hasn't heard for years:

Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain
And I've kissed you in places I'd better not name
And I've seen the sun go down on Sacré Coeur
But I like it much better going down on you
Yeah, you know that's true.